The present invention concerns the field of decoupling capacitors. Decoupling capacitors on IC packages are often essential to reduce voltage fluctuations, supply charge and maintain integrity of power distribution. Surface Mount Technology (SMT) decoupling capacitors fail to provide decoupling above several hundred megahertz due to their high lead inductance. On-chip capacitors are effective only at gigahertz frequencies due to their low capacitance. As a result of these limits, there is a frequency range, designated as the mid-frequency range, which cannot be sufficiently decoupled using current technologies.
The present invention provides a solution for charge supply (power delivery) and the decoupling of IC's at the package level. It overcomes the certain inductance problems of the board decoupling methodologies and saves real estate on the chip by reducing the size of the required on-chip capacitance, thereby improving the performance of digital and mixed-signal systems by reducing the power supply noise and providing sufficient current to meet semiconductor switching speed requirements, particularly high current Input/output (I/O) drivers, at a low cost. The present inventors have provided capacitors and packages which can meet these mid-range frequency levels.